


Mrs. Rochester Came to Burn the House Down

by fullmetalpotterhead, Serenity_Prime



Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: Angst, F/M, Gen, M/M, Multi, Nothing but angst, don't lie Serenity the ending is okayish
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-02-15
Updated: 2016-02-16
Packaged: 2018-05-20 15:35:53
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,771
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6014335
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fullmetalpotterhead/pseuds/fullmetalpotterhead, https://archiveofourown.org/users/Serenity_Prime/pseuds/Serenity_Prime
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Soft honey brown hair; Emerald green eyes; a smile that could have once filled anyone with warmth; a ghost who was supposed to only haunt their minds, she stood there smiling.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Hello readers :D! If you haven't read An Awkward Situation and Beloved on my Mind you might be very confused as to what is going on here. 
> 
> Anyways, for those of you have read, as you know, in chapter 10 it states that Mrs. Clarisse Agreste died in a tragic car accident. This fic actually diverts from that and goes with the cannon that she is missing. For the sake of this fic however, I will not be using Gabriel as hawk moth. 
> 
> this a two-shot that was basically co-authored between me and the lovely fullmetalpotterhead on tumblr and this reason #1 why you guys should be worried when we plot something. 
> 
> enjoy :D
> 
>  
> 
> _Fmph here! Fun fact about this au is it all started because I was listening to Your Kisses by Daughter and then Smother by Daughter and had all these ideas that I of course had to tell Serenity and then she was lovely enough to make a reality._

She was supposed to be dead. That was what they were thinking. Gabriel felt everything drop. He was grateful he wasn’t holding his infant daughter as stared at the face of the woman he once loved more than his own self. She was supposed to be dead.

It had been 10 fucking years since he last saw her walk away…

**************** 

**_She was supposed to be dead. _ **

*****************

“I’ll return the favor….”

With those words she had to leave her own home. She had to leave the man who was her husband in every way but lawfully apparently. Her children. They were to stay there. Without her.

She found herself crying her eyes out to her brother. Maria felt like the world had finally ended.

**********************

**_I want Mommy!!! I WANT MOMMY!!!!!_ **

***********************

He doesn’t know how to feel. He was confused. He is confused. She was his mother. But she was also supposed to be dead.

He missed his mother… but he wasn’t sure which one he missed more. The one that gave birth to him or the one that made his family whole somehow.

********************** 

No one in the Agreste House hold was expecting it. It had been a spring day and a rare day off for everyone. Maria was happily tending to her infant children while Gabriel and Adrien were talking about politics. They had all been in a generally good mood.

Then it was a maid. She looked distraught as she walked to them. No one knew what was going on… and the world stopped.

Soft, honey brown hair; Emerald green eyes; a smile that could have once filled anyone with warmth; a ghost who was supposed to only haunt their minds, she stood there smiling.  

No one could speak. No one knew what to say. Had it been maybe five or six years ago, both men would’ve greeted her happily and worshipped where she stood.

But neither could. By law, she was supposed to be dead. They had looked everywhere, but she had been nowhere to be found. It had been what, ten years since she said her goodbyes; ten years since they began a short period of hell, six years since they moved on, and one since their family was officially a family in the eyes of the law and in their own hearts.

*************************** 

Adrien wanted to be happy and hug her, but instead he felt like his heart had been ripped open again when he learned why his mother left. He had always thought he was never enough for his father in their private hell. He and the older man soon managed to somehow show each other that they were enough. But this… this was not what he wanted to hear.

**********************

**_“I was unhappy. I hated being here while you went off and lived your dreams.”_ **

***********************

She was so unhappy… and he wasn’t enough to keep her home. He had never been enough. He was worthless… he was nothing. He really couldn’t keep anyone happy. How could he be worthy of being called a hero when he wasn’t even good enough for his own mother?

**************************** 

Maria wanted to strangle the woman in front of her. She was feeling a thousand things at once, but her anger was the strongest of the whirling emotions. She kept a straight face. She once thought well of the woman, and believed that she had suffered a tragic circumstance, but now, her mind and her heart were only filled with hate.

If she was so unhappy then why had she come back?

********************** 

**_“I want to start all over again, Gabriel. I think this time we can be happy.”_ **

***********************

The words no slips his mouth rather quickly. He would’ve given anything to hear that years ago, but now, it was different. He had moved on, Adrien had moved on, and things were great… or they were until she showed up.

Suddenly all that guilt that he learned to finally let go of came back.

It slammed all on top of him. He couldn’t dare look at his son. This was his fault. He was the one who made everyone miserable. He was the one who made his first wife so unhappy that she left her own son because of how miserable she was. He was the one who brought this upon everyone.

**************************** 

**_“I’m afraid I can’t give you the divorce immediately…”_ **

***************************** 

He knows bullshit when he hears it. The judge is her fucking brother. He would side with her.

He had to stay with her for six months as a proper husband. He didn’t want to. He figures this is revenge for driving her away.

He just wished she had told him she hated the way they were.

************************ 

**_“Don’t worry the children can stay. I’ll return the favor.”_ **

***************************** 

Maria’s world collapses as she packs her bags. She stopped when she heard those words. This woman was looking at her with a smile that told her she had no choice. Her children were not hers to keep. They belonged to this house and the woman made it clear that everything in the house belonged to her.

************************

**_“You don’t love anyone.”_ **

*************************

Clarisse Agreste was angry as she watched her usurper leave. The girl was only seven years older than her own son and was nothing more than a conquer. She had no right to the house, to the children, to Gabriel. They were all hers.

Yet that girl dared to tell her that she loved no one. She loved her son, she loved Gabriel. That was why she came back.  She loved them enough to come back, right?

************************** 

**_“I can’t work here anymore.”_ **

**_“I know…”_ **

************************

Gabriel has known heartbreak his whole life. He can numb himself easily, but Maria and his children were always the exception. Their ruined lives were not something he could come back from. He watched as the woman he loved walked away.

It was far more painful than he had hoped. He always told himself he could live without her presence, without her smile, without her light, but it did not mean that watching her leave would not kill him on the inside either way.

**********************

**_“Come to bed.”_ **

************************** 

She always asked him that. If it were a different person, he would’ve said his "yes dear" and gone, but no, it was _her_.

He didn’t want to be near her. He gave a grunt as he continued his work.  He had been planning to sleep in his office anyways. It was less cold in there.

**************** 

**_“I love you.”_ **

************** 

Adrien hates hearing those words come out of her mouth. He used dream that she would say those words when the world had become a lonely hell.

Then bright blue eyes and a loud voice became the source of that motherly “I love you” that he had once been so desperate to hear. That “I love you” came from his father. “I love you” soon became his favorite phrase as two blue eyed siblings came into his life.

But now it felt meaningless. Especially from the person who birthed him. He was surprised at how easy it was to start hating her.

*******************

**_“I hate you.”_ **

*******************

She blinks when she hears those words. They’re coming from a face that is too much like his father’s. She could believe it from the three year old who runs as far away from her when he sees her. She could believe it from the infant girl who cries any time she comes to the room.

But not from her son.

The child she gave birth too.

The child she loved dearly.

She wants to ask why and she does.

****************** 

**_“YOU CAN’T PRETEND WE’RE OKAY! YOU FUCKING LEFT WITHOUT A TRACE AND LEFT ME AND DAD. HE FUCKED UP. I NEEDED HIM. I NEEDED YOU. I THOUGHT I WASN’T GOOD ENOUGH FOR HIM. AND THEN YOU KNOW WHAT HE DID? HE TRIED TO REACH OUT TO ME. HE FUCKED UP AND HE OWNED UP TO IT. YOU HAVEN’T OWNED UP TO SHIT. YOU JUST UP AND LEFT ONE DAY. NO CONTACT, NO EXCUSE, NO NOTHING! YOU CAME HERE AFTER TEN YEARS AND EXPECT EVERYTHING TO BE FUCKING DANDY AND OKAY? YOU REMINDED ME THAT I AM NOT GOOD ENOUGH FOR ANYONE.”_ **

******************

Adrien is shaking. Tears are falling down his cheeks as he takes deep breaths. She left. She left him. She left because she was unhappy. It was her fault.

It wasn’t his fault. He was a kid. He had spent most of his adolescence blaming himself, but no more. This was her fault. He walked away before he could hear her response. He didn’t want her excuses anymore. She had told them that she wanted to start over and forced them into this hell.

***************

She wants to cry. Why would he say that? She loved him and his father. She came back. She came back for them. She came back and they betrayed her!

They took a girl who was younger than her into the house and acted as if that child could replace her.

**************

**_“You’re three months pregnant.”_ **

************* 

Maria wants to cry. She’s lost all her joy and now she has a child that will suffer the result. They will never know their awkward father, or their kind big brother, or their brother and sister who love nothing more than to laugh and smile.

They will only know that they are the only joy in the world for their pitiful mother. She will do everything to make sure this child does not suffer. Even if she is miserable, this child, this small piece of love and joy, should at least know all the beautiful things of the world.  


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So now we come to the conclusion of this two-shot angst fest. I must say, this was fun to write. I hope you guys enjoyed it

********************* 

 ** _“Do you even love me anymore?”_**  
****************************

He responded no as he walked into the nursery. He knew she wouldn’t go in there, so both he and Adrien used it as the only safe place in the house.

His three year old son cries and begs for his mother, telling him he doesn’t like the scary lady. He replies that he knows and that he’s sorry. He doesn’t know how to get rid of her. He wishes he could though. He knows that Felix and Angevin needed Maria more than he did.

**************

**_“I want mommy…”_ **

************** 

Adrien hates hearing those words more than the “I love you” he still receives from the woman. He knows they want their mother. He wants her too. He misses her. She’s his mother, too.

He recalls when he would fly across the sky with another name and find her standing on her roof with snacks.

He recalls her fighting his father vehemently for his right to his youth.

He recalls when she hugged them both forgetting that she was nothing to them.

He recalls that first Christmas he spent with her and his father. The smiles and the laughs that he didn’t think would be possible for a very long time.

He recalls when he could call this place home. Those memories once belonged to a ghost, but now they belonged to a lost light.

He can’t take it anymore.

This house.

The ghost that forces them to stay.

He makes a choice he knows will hurt, but he can’t stay. None of them can.

********************* 

**_“I’m going out.”_ **

**_“Be safe….”_ **

**_“I love you, dad.”_ **

**_“I love you, too.  Take care of your brother and sister.”_ **

******************** 

Gabriel knows Adrien isn’t coming back. He has that same look that his mother had when she left… the only difference is that despite the fact that he’s leaving, there is some hope that he will return.

He watches them leave. It hurts even more knowing that they’re going to find the one he had to let go of.

He’s happy for them. They could go. He was bound to the house until it burned with him in it.

******************

**_“My babies. All my precious babies.”_ **

******************** 

They’re there. In her crappy apartment standing looking at her as if they have found something they had lost.

She smiles and cries as she hugs all three of them. They’re all she has left besides the unborn life in her. And they’re here.

She smiles as she tells them that there is another coming.

******************* 

**_“Since when do you drink?”_ **

******************** 

He doesn’t respond as he pours himself another shot of whiskey. It seems to be the only way to cooperate in that house now that it’s just them.  

He goes to his office and locks the door.

He breaks everything and screams every curse in every language he knows.

This is his fault.

And he wants to die.

*************

**_“Why won’t you look me in the eyes?”_ **

**************

She knows why. He’s thinking about another woman. Her usurper; the trophy, the whore, the woman who stole her family from her. She sits on the bed shaking. She recalls seeing it all over the news. That girl wearing a blue dress—crafted by HER husband’s hands; and those children that had no right to exist—they're being worshiped as if they had done something great.

They had done nothing. They were just a lame attempt to replace her. She was the one who they all loved. She was their love. She loved her husband and son. Why did they betray her? Why would they bring someone else into their house? Into their lives?

Why would Gabriel bring someone else into their bed?

A girl who could’ve been their own child had stained her sheets with indiscretions that she could not dare imagine.

***************** 

**_“I’m sorry, but you’ve lost the baby….”_ **

*****************

Maria keeps her mask. She’s about ready to break everything, but she sees her infant children. She thinks of the unborn and finds that perhaps its better this way. That child would have only been born into more suffering. It’s good that she accidentally slipped.

Adrien is heartbroken. She can tell. The boy was too much like his father sometimes. He wore a front when grieving and told no one of his sufferings.

***************** 

**_“Who are you?”_ **

**_“I’m Adrien’s mother.”_ **

**_“You’re not Maria.”_ **

***************** 

Before Clarisse can think she raises her hand, but it’s stopped. She turns to see Gabriel glaring at her. He’s never done that before. He stands between her and the blue haired girl. She looks to the girl who is scared and confused.

Then to Gabriel who has murder in his eyes.

**************

**_“Don’t ever touch her.”_ **

*************** 

So this girl is another whore of his.

She looks at him in disgust.

*************** 

**_“How many other whores have you forgotten to mention?”_ **

**_“Where is Adrien?”_ **

************** 

Gabriel wants to yell at her for trying to hurt Marinette. He knows Adrien loves the girl. And he knows that if Clarisse had slapped her, Adrien would never be able to forgive his birth mother. He says nothing and instead nudges Marinette away from Clarisse.

He tells her that Adrien left. She doesn’t know the situation. So he tells her.

To his surprise the girl hugs him hard and weeps for him.

He’s grateful for it, even if hugging is still uncomfortable.

*********** 

 ** _“I’m fine.”_**  
***********

Adrien knows she’s lying. She’s hurting and he can’t help much. He’s already quit school and gotten a job at nearby bar. It’s nothing glamorous, but at least he can help during the day. He wishes he told Marinette, but he doesn’t feel like it’s worth it.

He can’t go to her for all of his problems. She’s the one who has the weight of the world on her shoulders. She doesn’t need his issues.

********************** 

**_“WHY WON’T YOU FUCKING LOOK AT ME?”_ **

*********************

He says nothing and locks himself in his office. He can’t take it anymore. He begins to drink out of the bottles hoping to go into a drunken stupor.

He drinks another.

And another.

And another.

His mind is lost. He finds a bottle. He knows he’s not supposed to drink from it… it will hurt him. But he’s lost all fucks to give about his own life. He opens it knowing full well he might not be able to come back from it.

But it’s fine. Everything will go to his true wife and their children. So they can live on without him.

Nothing will go to the ghost. He laughs as he takes a swig of whatever it is.

Everything burns.

He feels like he is one fire.

And he can feel it. Death knocking on the window.

Or was it the door?

He’s surprised when he sees Nathalie and Philippe. They’re not dead… he’s supposed to be though. He’ll die soon enough.

***************

**_“He’s in the hospital….”_ **

***************

Adrien wants to say he’s fine. But he’s not. He’s about to scream at the woman who sits across from him. He sees people he hasn’t in a while.

The anger in him turns to shame. To his surprise, they all hug him. He kisses Marinette. He needs to feel her. And she kisses back.

************* 

**_“S-she’s your girlfriend?”_ **

************* 

Clarisse feels the world drop. For the first time since she’s returned, she’s felt guilt. The girl looks at her and says nothing. Adrien…

Her son…

He has that look in his eyes. That same look as his father filled with nothing but hatred.

It all tumbles down on her. She’s not the one who was replaced. She looks to the woman who’s holding the baby girl. And then to Nathalie who hadn’t even looked to her once during this whole time. It was strange to see the woman, who was once her best friend, ignore her.

She looks to her son again.

******************** 

**_“She stole you from me….”_ **

**_“I didn’t take anything you weren’t willing to give up.”_ **

******************* 

Maria is Angry. So very angry.

She hands her daughter to Adrien and then grabs Clarisse by the forearm before leading her away.

She kept quiet for the sake of her son and her husband. She had kept quiet because she knew this woman was once the most prominent person in their life.

************* 

**_“YOU FUCKING LEFT THEM. THEY NEEDED YOU. YOU MARRIED A MAN WHO YOU KNEW HAD AMBITIONS AND HAD A CHILD WITH HIM KNOWING THAT SOMETIMES HE BECAME TOO ENGROSSED IN HIS WORK. YOUR SON NEEDED YOU AND ONE DAY YOU UP AND FUCKING LEFT. DO YOU KNOW WHAT THEY WERE LIKE WHEN I CAME INTO THEIR LIVES? THEY COULDN’T ACTUALLY HAVE A CONVERSATION. THEY DIDN’T KNOW ANYTHING ABOUT EACH OTHER. GABRIEL SHUTS DOWN WHEN HE’S BROKEN HEARTED, YOU KNEW THAT. ADRIEN’S THE EXACT SAME WAY. THEY’RE JUST DIFFERENT ABOUT HOW THEY SHOW IT.”_ **

*************************

Clarisse is shaking. This isn’t true… they didn’t need her. They acted like they would be fine without her.

**********************  

“ ** _ADRIEN RAN AWAY FOR FUCKS SAKE. GABRIEL AND HE HAD TO WORK HARD TO GET TO WHERE THEY ARE NOW. AND YOU RUINED IT. YOU DON’T LOVE ANYONE. YOU JUST CONSTANTLY HAVE TO TEST EVERYONE’S LOVE FOR YOU. YOU DON’T KNOW ANYTHING ABOUT EITHER OF THEM. I HAD TO FIGHT TOOTH AND NAIL FOR BOTH OF THEM TO LET ME IN. I LOVED THEM SO MUCH I WAS WILLING TO GIVE UP EVERYTHING FOR THEM TO BE HAPPY. WHERE WERE YOU? OFF CHANGING YOUR NAME AND ACTING LIKE IT WAS OKAY FOR YOU TO PRETEND TO BE GONE?”_**

***************

Clarisse can’t speak. She looked at the girl for what felt like the first time. Guilt piled on her. She was unsatisfied with being a stay at home mother… even though she had told Gabriel that she had wanted to do exactly that. He had respected her wishes.

The more she remembered the more she realized she had been wrong. She looked to the girl and realized that she was crying.

Crying for the man who almost died from drinking an alcohol he was allergic too.

*************** 

**_“You should just leave.”_ **

****************

She wants to cry when she realizes those words are from Nathalie. Nathalie was glaring at her. They were friends once.

And she ruined everything.

She burned all the bridges.

****************** 

**_“Stay with me and my family.”_ **

***************** 

He wants to say yes. But he can’t. He’s needed here. His brother and sister need him because he knows his mother can only be strong for so long. He tells her he can’t and she kisses his cheek and says she understands.

He wishes he'd told her in the first place.

*********** 

**_“Please don’t shut me out again.”_ **

********

He won’t. He can’t. He needs her. She’s the yin to his yang. He nods in promise that he won’t. Nino gives him a hug. He is grateful. Alya does the same and smiles.

Marinette stays and he is feeling truly at peace for the first time in months.

*********** 

**_“He’s going to be fine.”_ **

********* 

Maria almost lets out a loud cry of joy, but instead she gives a nod as she sits down next to Adrien. She asks if it’s fine if they move. She hates the current Agreste Manor. There’s too much she wants to forget in there.

She’s surprised that he agrees.

******** 

**_“I want to divorce Gabriel.”_ **

*******

Clarisse knows she has no choice. She lost her place the moment she decided she was going to leave. She knew her brother would side with her and used it to get back what she thought was hers.

She had to own up to her mistakes.

Because she was too late.

She had ruined everything. Why did she convince herself that it would be okay?

She only came back out petty jealousy that someone else had taken her title. She had ruined her son and her husband because she acted on an impulse… a 10 year long impulse.

*********** 

**_“Gabriel….?”_ **

******* 

Gabriel was pretty sure he was going to die. When he saw Maria sitting there next to him it felt all too surreal.

She smiled at him that loving smile that seemed to always fill him and kissed his forehead.  It felt good to feel her so close.

******* 

**_“I love you.”_ **

******* 

Adrien feels his heart burst when Marinette says it. It’s the first time in a very long time that hearing that makes him happy. He sits on the park bench with her as they watch the kids play. Felix is happy to be playing with his best friend, Brigitte, and Angevin is having a ball playing with some yarn Marinette gave her.

****** 

**_“What type of house do you want to live in?”_ **

*****

Maria is surprised when she hears that. Gabriel was finally released and they had all gone back to the Agreste manor.

So when she hears that she smiles. She wants a house where she can plant lots of flowers and have a small vegetable garden.  Somewhere that’s big enough to accommodate them and future grandchildren and her family every once in a while.

******

**_“That sounds like home.”_ **

*****

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If you feel like I left any loose ends please by all means tell me! I hope you guys like the ending thought!!

**Author's Note:**

> AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAh I know i’m ending it on a sad note but I promise part two should be up by tomorrow or Tuesday so please enjoy


End file.
